


The Final Arrow

by McFreeky



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-14
Updated: 2014-04-14
Packaged: 2018-01-19 09:09:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1463740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/McFreeky/pseuds/McFreeky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She was gone, but he still felt her everywhere he looked.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Final Arrow

He lost her a year ago today. It wasn't to some attack or one of his many enemies trying to get to him through her. No. After over fifty years waking up beside one another, he got up one morning only to discover that she never would. She was 89.

Initially, he was angry. After all the risks he took, all the bullets and knives and infinite crises he had faced, he should have been the first to go. It was hard enough when they lost Diggle ten years ago to dementia. He didn't know if he could survive this.  
  
Still, he did his best to keep going. She wouldn't want him to spend the rest of his years in misery. So, he stayed as positive as someone who just lost the love of their life could be, for her sake.  
  
It was Wednesday, and he was making his weekly visit to her grave. It was growing harder to get there in the last few months. His bad leg was getting worse, forcing him to lean on his cane more and more. Fortunately, their two kids were with him this visit, helping to support him as he made his way.  
  
"You shouldn't push yourself, dad," their son Thomas Robert said as he steadied him. "Mom wouldn't want you to."  
  
Oliver smiled, imagining her expression as she admonished him. "No, she wouldn't. She also knows how stubborn I am. She won't like it, but she knows she can't stop me."  
  
They found her marker. Felicity Megan Queen, Beloved Mother and Wife. There was an empty spot next to it, ready for his name once he joined her.  
  
Tommy and their daughter, Stephanie Sara, gave him space as he ritually cleaned the site. He talked to her, like he did during every visit. Oliver signaled to the other two to join him.  
  
After half an hour, they returned to the house he and she shared as they grew old together. Tommy and Steph asked him to move out and back into the empty Queen mansion, but Oliver could never leave this place. Even if it was emptier now, there were too many great moments here, memories he couldn't leave behind.  
  
Today, however, the small house was full. Both of their kids had brought their families: Jessica, Tommy's wife, and their two boys David and Sam and Steph's wife Leslie with their son Daniel. Having his family around him helped soothe the ache this day brought.  
  
They sat together in the living room. His grandsons stayed on whatever device was in style these days (Felicity was the only reason he was able to stay up with tech trends) while his kids shared stories about her.

“Remember the time mom let her experience with a pot brownie slip?” Steph said, barely containing the laughter. “She was trying to teach us not to do drugs, and she went off about what happened to her, and how it’s how she found out she was allergic to nuts. And she wasn’t finished. It morphed into some story about a lacrosse player or something.”

Tommy was cracking up. “I remember! It was fifteen minutes before she realized how far off topic she was. She ended it with ‘Just don’t do drugs. It’s bad.’”

Laughter filled the void that was his home. It reminded him of her. She was usually amused if not outright laughing much of the time.

“God, her rambling made trips feel so much longer,” Steph said. “Once, she went on for an hour, saying whatever came to mind.” She pointed at him. “And you just let her go and go, dad. Why didn’t you stop her? I know you could. You did it all the time.”

“Only when she was in public,” Oliver answered. “And only when I knew she would be embarrassed by what she was saying. I love listening to her talk. If I had it my way, she would never stop.”

They stayed a few more hours, sharing more stories and some Belly Burger for dinner. Eventually, they left, and he was alone again. It was these moments he felt the greatest desire to be with her, the moments just after he witnessed what they had built together after half a century. He would suffer through another five years on the island for another day or hour or even a minute with her.

He lived in their house for another year before he had to move back into the mansion. His bad leg made it nearly impossible to live alone anymore. So if he was going to need round the clock care, he would return to the home where he was used to others taking care of him. Oliver still made them take him to her grave every Wednesday. He wouldn’t stop that tradition until he was next to her again.

He was growing tired and listless as the days rolled on. It wasn’t long until Oliver was bedbound. Still, he forced his nurses to take him to the cemetery the next Wednesday. He cleaned it one last time. Somehow, he knew another week wouldn’t pass before he ended up here for good.

Five days later, two years and three weeks after she passed, he was gone. A week after that, Tommy, Steph, and their families watched as he was lowered next to his wife. The stone that marked their final resting place had a new name carved next to hers. Oliver Jonas Queen, Beloved Father and Husband.

Between the two names, there was a solitary arrow. It was what brought them together all those years ago, and now it would forever link them at their resting place.


End file.
